Expanding the chicken coop

There be challenges to expanding our intergalactic footprint. Well, interplanetary so far, at any rate. Getting somewhere is just one side of things. Getting there in good health, physically and mentally, is quite another. Still, these are challenges that must be overcome if we are to keep our eggs in more than one basket, which I think we’re going to have to do.

As odds have it, sooner or later, one way or another, this li’l ol’ basket of ours is likely to go bye-bye, and when or if it does, whether it be with a bang or a whimper, we’ll want to have a good number of eggs safely stashed away in a few other locations to keep us a going concern.

But we’ll still need another small step to eventually lead us chickens toward the great interstellar leap. There is one natural next step: To Mars!

Though we may want to give LV-426 a miss, just in case. Those chickens are nasty.

The Sun expanding to a red giant towards the end of its life and swallowing up Mercury, Venus and the Earth in an inescapable flaming inferno (still scheduled some 5-6 billion years ahead, so it’s not exactly an urgent matter … yet)